{"id":1771678,"date":"2022-12-11T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T21:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771678"},"modified":"2022-12-11T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T21:03:17","slug":"he-would-have-gone-free-anyway-in-2029-john-kirby-responds-to-critics-of-swapping-viktor-bout-for-brittney-griner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/he-would-have-gone-free-anyway-in-2029-john-kirby-responds-to-critics-of-swapping-viktor-bout-for-brittney-griner\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He Would Have Gone Free Anyway In 2029\u2019: John Kirby Responds To Critics Of Swapping Viktor Bout For Brittney Griner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">40<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhe-would-have-gone-free-anyway-in-2029-john-kirby-responds-to-critics-of-swapping-viktor-bout-for-brittney-griner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771678&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby defended the Biden administration\u2019s prisoner swap of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for American WNBA player Brittney Griner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Appearing Sunday on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d with host Martha Raddatz, Kirby responded to bipartisan criticism of the exchange, specifically reacting to Sen. Bob Menendez\u2019s (D-NJ) remarks calling it a \u201cdeeply disturbing decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would have gone free anyway in 2029,\u201d Kirby said in response. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t serving a life sentence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Raddatz pushed back on his statement, saying, \u201cthat\u2019s a long way away.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s six years away,\u201d Kirby replied. \u201cAnd nobody\u2019s doing backflips over there about the fact that Mr. Bout is a free man six years earlier than he would have been.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-11036569\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was<\/a> sentenced to 25 years in April 2012.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Nobody\u2019s doing back flips over there about the fact\u201d Viktor Bout was released early, WH&#8217;s John Kirby tells <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarthaRaddatz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MarthaRaddatz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Mr. Bout decides to go back to his previous line of work, then we\u2019re going to do what we need to do to hold him accountable.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vY0BbWFHCJ\">https:\/\/t.co\/vY0BbWFHCJ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lNl9HSBVv2\">pic.twitter.com\/lNl9HSBVv2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisWeekABC\/status\/1601951055939616769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow airport after being caught with marijuana vaping materials and sentenced to nine years in prison in August. Bout was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/international-arms-dealer-viktor-bout-convicted-new-york-terrorism-crimes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">convicted<\/a> in 2011 of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to a designated foreign terrorist group to be used to kill Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Kirby insisted, \u201cwe\u2019re going to protect our national security\u201d while Bout is free. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Mr. Bout goes back to his previous line of work, then we\u2019re going to do what we need to do to hold him accountable and protect our interests.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden has been slammed for the deal as many Americans are upset that former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan remains detained in Russia. Whelan has been jailed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/madness-even-biden-doj-officials-calling-foul-on-griner-swap-for-merchant-of-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">since<\/a> 2018 on espionage charges that the U.S. government says are baseless.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Menendez released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/top-democrat-senator-blasts-biden-over-releasing-terrorist-for-griner-deeply-disturbing-decision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> last week saying, \u201cThe Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called \u2018Merchant of Death.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/12\/08\/mccarthy_griner_was_jailed_for_a_trumped-up_charge_but_to_exchange_her_for_merchant_of_death_makes_us_weaker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called<\/a> the one-for-one exchange a \u201cbig win for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin\u201d and said that Biden \u201cleft a Marine behind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Raddatz pressed Kirby on critics who said American negotiators weren\u2019t \u201ctough enough.\u201d Kirby responded, \u201cThey weren\u2019t in the room. They weren\u2019t on the phone,\u201d and added that negotiators pushed for the release of both Griner and Whelan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby defended the Biden administration\u2019s prisoner swap of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for American WNBA player Brittney Griner.\u00a0 Appearing Sunday on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d with host Martha Raddatz, Kirby responded to bipartisan criticism of the exchange, specifically reacting to Sen. Bob Menendez\u2019s (D-NJ) remarks calling it &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1530,"featured_media":1644328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[7878,7880,6222,6887,4365,6202,6849,4475,7879,4499,7881,6224,6195],"class_list":["post-1771678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-he","tag-7880","tag-bout","tag-brittney","tag-critics","tag-daily","tag-griner","tag-john","tag-kirby","tag-responds","tag-swapping","tag-viktor","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1644328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}